Know Your Amaretto

 Amaretto is NOT made from Almonds!   It’s a pure distilled alcohol spirit infused with apricot pits, burnt sugar and other fruits.  Sometimes, almond flavoring, vanilla, cloves and other spices and herbs are added.  Said to have been made originally in 1525 by an artist’s model in tribute to the artist’s talent.

 The artist was Berndarino Luini.  The place was Saronno, Italy.  Thus, the first brand was Amaretto Di Saronno.  Leonardo de Vinci and his student,  Luini,  were commissioned to paint frescos in the Saronno church.  Luini was painting an area which included the Madonna.  He found a model in a local widowed innkeeper who apparently liked the attention.  In appreciation for his work (as an artist and as a lover, according to the story), she steeped brandy and apricot pits and produced the first amaretto.  Not to be confused with Amaro, which is a type of Italian cordials made primarily from herbs.  Luini was touched by the effort of the lovely widow and boasted about  the flavored brandy. It soon became popular in Rome.

 Disaranno Originale claims the story is true and that they have followed the original recipe since 1525.  They deny almonds or nuts of any kind are involved.  “Apricot kernel oil”, burnt sugar and seventeen other herbs and fruits in precise measures are  infused into ‘absolute alcohol’.   A number of other companies produce almond flavored liqueurs.